"I will always remember his left arm wrapped around me, holding me as close as possible next to him behind that chair," said Peraza in a statement emailed to local news outlet ABC 7. "Amidst all the chaos, I'll always remember him saying these three words, 'I got you.' I believe I am still here today because of this amazing man."

Peraza detailed how she and Johnson had been seated next to each other at the same table at a holiday party for the San Bernardino County Health Department. Like shooter Syed Farook, both were health inspectors for the county.

"Wednesday morning at 10:55 a.m., we were seated next to each other at a table, joking," wrote Peraza. "We would have never guessed that only five minutes later, we would be huddled next to each other under that same table using a fallen chair as a shield from over 60 rounds of bullets being fired across the room."

Peraza started working for the health department in 2014 and was married earlier this year.

"Shannon was a protector to all of those he loved. Shannon was friendly and easy to know, making friends everywhere he traveled. He loved his job as a Health Inspector. He also loved his community and his fellow co-workers," wrote Pifer.

She described him as a man who lived a quiet and private life at his home Los Angeles, who loved walking through the city and hanging out at his favorite tattoo parlor.

"Shannon believed in the greatness of love, equality and kindness and treated others accordingly," wrote Pifer. "All who knew him will miss him more than we can ever say, and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who are grieving the loss of their loved ones."

The motive behind the San Bernardino attack is still unclear, but investigators say one of the shooters, Malik, did pledge allegiance to the Islamic State during the attack.

In now-deleted Facebook posts, Malik expressed her admiration for ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi using an alias, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to Mashable.

There was no sign that anyone affiliated with ISIS communicated with Malik, and it doesn't appear that she received any operational instructions, according to a U.S. official. However, the FBI said on Friday that it is now "investigating these horrific acts as an act of terrorism."

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